December 16, 2009
01:00 PM (EST)

News Release Number: STScI-2009-33

Hubble Finds Smallest Kuiper Belt Object Ever Seen

December 16, 2009: NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has discovered the smallest object
ever seen in visible light in the Kuiper Belt, a vast ring of icy debris that
is encircling the outer rim of the solar system just beyond Neptune.

The needle-in-a-haystack object found by Hubble is only 3,200 feet
across and a whopping 4.2 billion miles away. The smallest Kuiper Belt
Object (KBO) seen previously in reflected light is roughly 30 miles
across, or 50 times larger.